One of the classes I took during my first semester at UNCW was 3D Computer Graphics, where I was taught to create digital, three-dimensional models using Autodesk Maya. Our first three projects for the course had certain requirements and limitations, but our last project gave us total freedom to create nearly anything we could imagine. Naturally, I wanted to sculpt a realistic frog, and since I had liked the Cane Toad model I had made for Project 3, I thought I would start by creating something similar. However, I never really liked the completely symmetrical, static pose I had sculpted my Cane Toad in, so for this project I wanted to push myself further by sculpting a frog in the most active, exciting post I could come up with. Thinking back, I could not help recalling the shockingly graceful, arcing leaps of local Southern Leopard Frogs I had witnessed in person, and thought the species would be a perfect subject for this task. If time allowed, I hoped I would even be able to sculpt multiple stages of a Southern Leopard Frog jump.

After proposing my idea, my professor instantly recommended that I rig my sculpture to accomplish the active poses I was seeking. Though I had no idea how to rig a sculpture, if I could accomplish it rigging would allow me to pose my model infinitely. Fortunately, my professor sent me several simple tutorials by Academic Phoenix Plus and even taught me several times in class to help me rig my model. With our discussions in mind, I sculpted the Leopard Frog like I did my Cane Toad, through block modelling, and put it in a somewhat splayed pose ideal for rigging. Then, following the tutorials he sent me step by step, I created an internal skeleton. After improvements, I joined it to my model and painted skin weights control the stretching and squashing of the models’ form. Once I managed to texturing the Southern Leopard Frog’s elaborate markings, it was time to pose. I had a blast posing my sculpture this way and that, bending toes and stretching legs. I even got to create the jump stages I had been hoping to from the beginning! To further challenge myself, I also tried playing with water particle physics. I hoped if I could have my model trailing water, it would emphasize the energy of its movements, but I struggled to create just a couple splashes. Even so, at this point I had significantly surpassed my original expectations for this project.

After so much time spent modelling, rigging, and posing however, I barely had time for rendering, the biggest part of my grade! After staying up late to export the images I needed, I frantically edited the layers together with Photoshop, created my presentation, and submitted my project at the absolute last minute. I have never pushed a final project that close before, and by the time I arrived to school to present my project, I was still feeling the adrenaline. However, the time I spent ended up being completely worth the result. I never would have considered rigging had my professor not suggested it, and through his help I not only was able to go beyond my original goal for this project but also grow beyond the material for our course. At the beginning of the semester, I had never touched a 3D modelling program, so being able to finish this Southern Leopard Frog and present it to my class made me acutely aware of just how much I had learned in 3D Computer Graphics.